Crusoe and Redwood launch microgrid using recycled EV batteries to power data centers

AI data center developer Crusoe has partnered with battery recycling firm Redwood Energy to develop a microgrid system powered through solar and repurposed electric vehicle (EV) batteries for modular AI data centers.

The companies claim that the project is the largest microgrid in the North American market and will enable the deployment of mobile and scalable AI data centers that operate completely off-grid.

The companies have already deployed the 12MW/63GWh microgrid at an undisclosed Crusoe AI data center, where Crusoe is pioneering its Spark modular AI data center solution.

Crusoe Spark integrates a data center critical infrastructure, including cooling, power, and GPU-ready racks, into a single unit, optimized for AI compute. The system is designed for rapid deployments and can be scaled due to its modular nature.

Redwood currently processes 20GWh of second-life EV batteries annually, representing around 90 percent of all lithium-ion batteries in the North American market. Most of the batteries are repurposed into second-life energy storage systems, enhancing circularity across the battery supply chain.

HPE expands its Nvidia AI computing portfolio

Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) has expanded its portfolio of Nvidia AI computing solutions.

This has included the launch of the next generation of HPE's Private Cloud AI, and plans to work with KDDI on a new GB200 NVL72 system.

The portfolio combines Nvidia Blackwell accelerated computing, Nvidia Spectrum-X Ethernet, BlueField-3 networking technologies, Nvidia AI Enterprise software, and HPE’s full portfolio of servers, storage, services, and software.

HPE's Private Cloud AI is described as an "integrated turnkey AI factory with Nvidia hardware and software." The latest generation will offer HPE ProLiant Compute DL380a Gen12 servers with the new Nvidia RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs, and was co-engineered with Nvidia.

The Private Cloud AI comes in an air-gapped version for organizations with strict data privacy requirements - AI factory for sovereigns, which is for nations, governments, and public sector organizations - and can support multi-tenancy.

In addition to the private cloud updates, HPE has also revealed its upcoming Nvidia HGX B300 system, the HPE Compute XD690. Built with Blackwell Ultra GPUs, the servers should be ready to ship in October.

HPE to provide KDDI's Nvidia GPU clusters for Osaka data center

HPE is to provide KDDI with Nvidia Blackwell clusters at an upcoming data center in Osaka.

The two companies this week announced plans to deploy a rack-scale system featuring the Nvidia GB200 NVL72 platform built by HPE, based on the GPU-maker’s Blackwell architecture, within the Osaka Sakai data center.

Set to open in early 2026, the facility will provide startups and enterprises with access to Nvidia GPUs for the development of AI applications and training large language models (LLMs).

KDDI is building an AI data center in Sakai City within the Osaka Prefecture of Japan. It is being developed at the site of a former LCD screen manufacturing plant in Osaka. KDDI is the parent company of Telehouse, which operates data centers around the world, including across Asia.

KDDI has previously announced a partnership with Sakura and Hi-Res to provide access to GPUs in Japan, based on Nvidia GPU deployments at the new Osaka facility.

Sabey breaks ground on third building at Ashburn, Virginia, campus

Sabey Data Centers has broken ground on a third building at its Ashburn, Virginia, campus.

Construction has started on Building A, the third and final data center at the campus, which will deliver an initial 18MW of IT capacity, with the potential to grow to 54MW in the future.

The data center is expected to be in service by 2026.

The new data center will feature a range of cooling set-ups, catering for air-cooled, liquid-cooled, and hybrid environments, and accommodate densities of up to 100kW per rack.

A joint venture between Sabey Corporation and National Real Estate Advisors, Sabey Data Centers operates more than 4 million sq ft of data centers across the US, with six data center sites across the US in Quincy, Seattle, and East Wenatchee, Washington; New York City; Austin, Texas; and Ashburn, Virginia.

Qarnot launches Italian data center, waste heat to be used in local district heating network

French data center firm Qarnot has launched a new data center deployment in Italy and connected it to the city’s local district heating network.

The company this week launched a data center at the Lamarmora power plant in Brescia in Lombardy, in partnership with local energy firm A2A.

Qarnot’s first deployment in Italy, the waste heat from the liquid-cooled data center pods will be used in A2A’s district heating network in the city.

Brescia’s district heating network totals more than 684 kilometers of pipelines and 22,000 connected customers.

The Qarnot project is structured in two phases. The first phase, now-operational, involves 30 QBx computing units capable of generating about 800MWh of thermal energy annually. Images shared by the companies suggest the 30 computing units are housed in two pods.

Heat from the Qarnot pods can be recovered at 65°C, suitable for direct use in the district heating network via heat exchangers. Air cooling generally recovers heat at around 30°C, requiring supplemental heating through heat pumps to step the water up to the required temperature.

The company says that it currently has more than 50,000 computing cores spread over many sites in France and Europe, particularly in Finland. TechCrunch has previously reported that the company rolled out a pilot data center in Finland with 100kW of compute. It has also said it would be installing its QBx computing unit in data centers in France and Europe with power ranging from ‘hundreds of kW to a few MW.’

ACS Group’s Hochtief enters UK market, aims to develop network of Edge facilities

German construction firm Hochtief is launching a division in the UK to build out its own fleet of data centers.

ACS-owned Hochtief PPP Solutions this week announced the establishment of Hochtief Data Center Partner Limited in the UK.

ACS is a Spanish infrastructure development firm, best known in the US as the owner of Turner Construction. The company owns or has stakes in other firms such as Dragados, CIMIC, Leighton Asia, and Ventia. Data center clients include Meta and Vantage.

Traditionally known as a construction firm taking on projects for clients, ACS has recently pivoted to developing its own data centers that can be leased or sold to customers.

Hochtief has partnered with investment firm Palladio Infrastructure and server maker Thomas-Krenn.AG to develop a new fleet of data centers and a cloud provider to operate out of them.

The modular facilities are reportedly using timber and offer 2MW, expandable to 4MW. Hochtief has broken ground on Yexio data centers in Bad Lippspringe and Essen, with the latter due live this year. Another is reportedly in the works in Brake, and sites are potentially planned in Austria and Switzerland.

MARA partners with TAE Power to deploy demand response BESS to mitigate impact of HPC loads

Bitcoin mining firm MARA has partnered with power management company TAE Power Solutions to develop a high-frequency, real-time responsive load management system to meet energy demands from the AI and HPC data center sector.

The companies argue that, due to the unpredictable loads associated with high-performance computing, there is a need for an ultra-responsive energy resource that can shield both data center equipment and the local utility grid.

To mitigate these issues of grid volatility, MARA aims to leverage TAE’s proprietary power management technology, D-Series Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), which the company claims will have the capacity to deliver 10MW of clean energy storage.

The modular system offers a wide range of power levels, from 75kW to 1.25MW per unit, and can be scaled to multi-megawatt levels. The system is also agnostic to battery chemistry, allowing it to work with a range of battery types. It is a containerized solution, pre-fabricated in 10ft and 20ft ISO containers.

TAE Power Solutions is the power supply system originally developed by its parent company, TAE Technologies, for nuclear fusion energy research. According to the company, the storage system is expected to play an integral role in the company’s fusion process.

State of New York invests $40m to upgrade Alpha supercomputer with Nvidia DGX GB200 SuperPOD

The Empire State Development (ESD) Board has approved a $40 million investment from the state of New York to upgrade the supercomputer powering its Empire AI initiative.

Dubbed Empire AI Beta and housed at the University of Buffalo, the supercomputer marks the second phase of the initiative, which has seen a group of ten New York research institutions partner for the development of an AI computing center.

According to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Empire AI Beta is backed by more than $500m in public and private funding. Consisting of an Nvidia DGX GB200 SuperPOD, the system will offer an eight times increase in data storage, an 11x increase in AI training, and a 40x increase in inference, when compared to the current Alpha system.

Built by Lenovo, the original 4.10 petaflops Alpha deployment ranked 283rd on the most recent edition of the Top500 list and 51st on the Green500 list.

Empire AI’s founding members are the State University of New York, the City University of New York, Columbia University, Cornell University, NYU, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and the Flatiron Institute, with the University of Rochester, the Rochester Institute of Technology, and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai having more recently joined the project.

New York currently has 3.4GW of operational nuclear capacity, representing 42 percent of its low-carbon energy production.

Bain Capital in Exclusive Talks to Acquire Hong Kong Data Centre Projects for Up to $274M

Bain Capital is set to add another city to its Asia data centre network with the US fund manager in exclusive talks to acquire a pair of Hong Kong projects for up to HK$2.15 billion ($274 million).

Grand Ming had announced the talks for its iTech Tower 3.1 and iTech Tower 3.2 projects in a disclosure to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Thursday saying only that the potential buyer, “is a data infrastructure builder providing hyperscale, tailor-made, and colocation data solutions.” Bain Capital representatives declined to comment.

The iTech Tower 3 project is Grand Ming’s first purpose-built data centre facility after it earlier converted a pair of industrial properties in Tsuen Wan and Kwai Chung for digital infrastructure purposes. The Fanling project is built to hold 1,000 server racks with 5.5 metre (18 foot) slab to slab ceiling heights, and equipped for rack power densities of 5 to 10 kW.

Since taking NASDAQ-listed Chindata private in August 2023 in a deal which valued the group at $3.2 billion, Bain Capital has ramped up Singapore-based Bridge, which had operated as a unit of Chindata, in a Southeast Asia push.

In April of this year the company said it would invest $1.2 billion over the next three years to develop digital infrastructure in Thailand’s Chonburi province, east of Bangkok. In October Bridge signed an agreement with Malaysia’s Mah Sing Gropu to expand a data centre project in Selangor state which could reach 200MW in capacity.